In today’s episode Professor Koestner and I dive into the research around bad habits. We all have them and wish we didn’t. So what can we do about them? First we can think about changing habits at optimal times in our lives called “fresh starts”. Second, we can rethink how much “relaxation” we really need from things like TV, maybe it is less than we think? Third, we can make implementation plans so that we replace “bad” habits with new, more helpful habits (and experiment to see what works!). And finally, we can figure out how to go beyond the present moment, a concept called “transcendence” to think about a more important and meaningful goal or value.

Production by Jodie Richardson. Co-production, mixing and music by Pat Bourdon.

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Show Notes

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (2008) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi 

Baumeister, Roy F., and Todd F. Heatherton. “Self-Regulation Failure: An Overview.” Psychological Inquiry, vol. 7, no. 1, 1996, pp. 1–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1449145.

The power of habit (2014) by Charles Duhigg

Katherine Milkman and the Fresh Start Effect:                                              

• https://www.strategy-business.com/article/00266?gko=6c11d 
• https://www.media.mit.edu/videos/milkman-2015-04-10/